Australia really is the worse place to live.
Looking at the game at face value it really is just like any other generic waypoint-based open-world game, where you raid camps, and liberate large areas that allow you to unlock more stuff to use to liberate more areas, and I won't lie to you, after like the 17th hour it got repetitive, and I put 57 hours into this game; but the reason I'm not giving this game as low as say a Ubisoft game is because it does something very few licensed games do with their IP's; make the game feel like you're taking part of the story and world of this character.
Max as a character is nothing more than a broken person just coasting through life waiting for the die where he either dies of old age or someone comes along who's big enough to finally put him out of his misery. As a character, he's nothing special but as a video game protagonist, he's perfect.
He has enough of a blank slate to have players easily understand him, the state he's in, and empathize with Max and see what kind of adventures he goes on, but he has enough wiggle room for more development of the story needs it.
Along with Max being a great protagonist for a video game the world of Mad Max has just as much potential for a video game. Everything from the wild characters to the crazy-looking cars, to the stupid amount of BDSM-wearing lunatics; it's like this world was made just for some big dumb action game to be played.
The game we actually got was kinda what the movies were but not to the outstanding craziness of Road Warrior or Thunderdome. It still looks like Mad Max and the way the open world looks just irradiates the feeling and taste of a dried-up world where everything is dead and nothing can survive. The skyboxes look drop-dead gorgeous at times and the graphics still hold up for a game released in 2015.
The most common complete I see thrown at this game is the story is uninteresting and I get it 100%, but to me the story is the glue that puts literally everything together and
if you take a sec to just look back at all the events that happen in it, I think it fits perfectly as a Mad Max story.
It starts with Max just driving around without any purpose when he finds himself in a place called 'The Great White' controller but random BDSM villain of the week this one by the name of Lord Scrotus, the first thing he does is try to take Max's car and shotgun, Max in return kills half his men and shoves a Chainsaw right into Lord Scrotus's head "supposedly" killing him. Max is left with nothing but soon finds himself being helped by a crazy hunchback named Chumbucket who sees him as a messiah but for cars, Chumbucket then gives Max a new car that you'll be upgrading as the game goes on.
For about 50% of the game Max's only goal is to get to Gastown (the place where the worse of the worse reside) so he can get a v8 engine so he can make his car more powerful and leave The Great White.
Now yeah that sounds boring, having 50% of your 30 or 40 hour-long game be just focused on getting a better engine for your car just feels like it's not really interesting in telling a story, and that's the part that feels so Mad Max to me. Max is a character that has no interest in literally anyone in The Great White, and anyone he does meet along the way he has to help he only does it to further his own goals of getting the new engine. It's not until Max meets this woman and her daughter which brings back long suppress thoughts about his dead wife and daughter does he start doing thing a more traditional hero would do. Like saving the woman from slavery; or rescuing the woman's daughter from a group of crazy cannibals. We watch as Max starts to open himself up just a little bit to where we can see a glimpse of humanity left inside of him.
This is later dashed as Lord Scrotus who is still very much alive and still has a chainsaw in his skill finds out Max is also still alive, and decides that instead of killing Max; he kills this new family he's made to "brake him", this has the complete opposite effect where instead of breaking Max this just reverts Max to his previously broken state only this time he's furious and out for blood. After he find their dead body the first thing he does is get in his car find Lord Scrotus, and then destroys his entire convoy and then sacrifices the car you've been working on for the entire game just to make sure he does. he then rockets out of the exploding convey with Max's old car and tries to run Max down to make sure he dies. Max then throws a spear into his chest and kills him "for real this time". Max gets his old car back, forgets about the woman and her daughter, and goes back on to the empty road, where he'll never find true peace or love, not for a broke and sadistic man like Max.
Even if most of the story is a bit generic and doesn't really do a good enough job at telling itself; it still does a fantastic job at being a Mad Max story.
The tale of a wandering man finding himself in a strange new town, fighting for his life, hoping he'll find some sort of meaning or purpose, only for reality to come crashing down on him.
It's not as deep as Mad Max 1, or as well crafted as Road Warrior or Fury Road, but it is a good Mad Max story, mixed with visuals and scenery that puts you directly into the dried and dead world, and really that's all you can ask for in a Mad Max video game.
Looking at the game at face value it really is just like any other generic waypoint-based open-world game, where you raid camps, and liberate large areas that allow you to unlock more stuff to use to liberate more areas, and I won't lie to you, after like the 17th hour it got repetitive, and I put 57 hours into this game; but the reason I'm not giving this game as low as say a Ubisoft game is because it does something very few licensed games do with their IP's; make the game feel like you're taking part of the story and world of this character.
Max as a character is nothing more than a broken person just coasting through life waiting for the die where he either dies of old age or someone comes along who's big enough to finally put him out of his misery. As a character, he's nothing special but as a video game protagonist, he's perfect.
He has enough of a blank slate to have players easily understand him, the state he's in, and empathize with Max and see what kind of adventures he goes on, but he has enough wiggle room for more development of the story needs it.
Along with Max being a great protagonist for a video game the world of Mad Max has just as much potential for a video game. Everything from the wild characters to the crazy-looking cars, to the stupid amount of BDSM-wearing lunatics; it's like this world was made just for some big dumb action game to be played.
The game we actually got was kinda what the movies were but not to the outstanding craziness of Road Warrior or Thunderdome. It still looks like Mad Max and the way the open world looks just irradiates the feeling and taste of a dried-up world where everything is dead and nothing can survive. The skyboxes look drop-dead gorgeous at times and the graphics still hold up for a game released in 2015.
The most common complete I see thrown at this game is the story is uninteresting and I get it 100%, but to me the story is the glue that puts literally everything together and
if you take a sec to just look back at all the events that happen in it, I think it fits perfectly as a Mad Max story.
It starts with Max just driving around without any purpose when he finds himself in a place called 'The Great White' controller but random BDSM villain of the week this one by the name of Lord Scrotus, the first thing he does is try to take Max's car and shotgun, Max in return kills half his men and shoves a Chainsaw right into Lord Scrotus's head "supposedly" killing him. Max is left with nothing but soon finds himself being helped by a crazy hunchback named Chumbucket who sees him as a messiah but for cars, Chumbucket then gives Max a new car that you'll be upgrading as the game goes on.
For about 50% of the game Max's only goal is to get to Gastown (the place where the worse of the worse reside) so he can get a v8 engine so he can make his car more powerful and leave The Great White.
Now yeah that sounds boring, having 50% of your 30 or 40 hour-long game be just focused on getting a better engine for your car just feels like it's not really interesting in telling a story, and that's the part that feels so Mad Max to me. Max is a character that has no interest in literally anyone in The Great White, and anyone he does meet along the way he has to help he only does it to further his own goals of getting the new engine. It's not until Max meets this woman and her daughter which brings back long suppress thoughts about his dead wife and daughter does he start doing thing a more traditional hero would do. Like saving the woman from slavery; or rescuing the woman's daughter from a group of crazy cannibals. We watch as Max starts to open himself up just a little bit to where we can see a glimpse of humanity left inside of him.
This is later dashed as Lord Scrotus who is still very much alive and still has a chainsaw in his skill finds out Max is also still alive, and decides that instead of killing Max; he kills this new family he's made to "brake him", this has the complete opposite effect where instead of breaking Max this just reverts Max to his previously broken state only this time he's furious and out for blood. After he find their dead body the first thing he does is get in his car find Lord Scrotus, and then destroys his entire convoy and then sacrifices the car you've been working on for the entire game just to make sure he does. he then rockets out of the exploding convey with Max's old car and tries to run Max down to make sure he dies. Max then throws a spear into his chest and kills him "for real this time". Max gets his old car back, forgets about the woman and her daughter, and goes back on to the empty road, where he'll never find true peace or love, not for a broke and sadistic man like Max.
Even if most of the story is a bit generic and doesn't really do a good enough job at telling itself; it still does a fantastic job at being a Mad Max story.
The tale of a wandering man finding himself in a strange new town, fighting for his life, hoping he'll find some sort of meaning or purpose, only for reality to come crashing down on him.
It's not as deep as Mad Max 1, or as well crafted as Road Warrior or Fury Road, but it is a good Mad Max story, mixed with visuals and scenery that puts you directly into the dried and dead world, and really that's all you can ask for in a Mad Max video game.